Constructed entirely from samples, DJ Shadow's 1996 debut, Endtroducing …, was a genuinely pioneering record, although this approach has been repeated so many times since that what was once futuristic can now feel nostalgic. On only his fourth album in 15 years, 39-year-old Californian Josh Davis uses longer samples and more conventional song structures to make The Less You Know, the Better feel like a genre-hopping mixtape. There's old skool hip-hop (Back to Front), riff-shredding heavy metal (Border Crossing, I Gotta Rokk), pastoral soul (I've Been Trying) and eerie dubs. From Little Dragon singer Yukimi Nagano's airy Scale It Back to the Tom Vek-sung White Lies-style doom rock of Warning Call, it's a hit-and-miss affair. The dirgey Give Me Back the Nights outstays its welcome the most, although the sublime vocal sample/piano standout Sad and Lonely shows that the simplest ideas can be the best.